Bengaluru:  Launching Odishas startup policy at the investors meet here, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said it was aimed at placing the state among the three top startup hubs in the country by 2020.

"To encourage the startup ecosystem we have today  launched the Odisha Startup Policy 2016. We wish to emerge among the three top startup hubs in India by 2020 through strategic partnerships and policy interventions to support the startups," Patnaik said.

He said the policy was based on the initiatives and activities that his government planned to undertake to develop a world class startup hub in Odisha and an ecosystem to facilitate at least 1,000 startups in the next five years.

The policy announced today along with incentives, assistance and grants also includes a startup capital infrastructure fund or seed fund up to Rs 25 crore to support development of soft and hard infrastructure for startup ecosystem.

It also said the government will participate in private  state specific funds such as seed or venture capital funds,  contributing up to 1/4th of the total size.

The Odisha Investors Meet 2016 that was organised here  today was attended by industry leaders like Biocon Chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Flipkarts Sachin Bansal, OYO Rooms CEO Ritesh Agarwal and NASSCOM President R Chandrasekhar among others.

Patnaik said Odisha was emerging as the manufacturing  hub on the countrys east coast and his government was broad  basing the industrial development in the state.

To provide deep impetus to the holistic  development of key sectors, the government was working on dedicated sectoral policies for auto and auto components, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, plastic, chemicals and petrochemicals,  renewable energy, textile and apparel, he said.

"The focus of my government is to promote employment intensive sectors. We will launch these sectoral policies before the end of this year," he added.